Warning: I'm writing this to document this incident for our future family use (because I know someday we will laugh about this...right???), but if you have a weak stomach...proceed no further. I tried to keep all the really fun details out of it.
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Just returned from our amazing third trip to Table Rock, staying with my Aunt and Uncle at their lake house in Lampe, Mo. We are so happy that they open up their house to us and are so thankful when they invite us back! With 15 total people for almost a week, it can get a little bit crazy, but we had a GREAT time! We spent the days wake-boarding in the morning and tubing, napping, and floating in the afternoon. There was a lot of great food, water time and family time, but that's the GOOD part.
I'm sure you have all seen National Lampoon's Vacation, with the trip to Wally-World that turns ugly. For every trip I've taken with my family, my dad starts the vacation out by singing the theme song from that movie by Lindsay Buckingham..."Holiday Road." Great song, and great movie. One line from that movie (also quoted by my father many times) goes something like: "It's vacation...we're all miserable." I probably said it wrong, but you get the gist. Cullen and I truly experienced a "Holiday Road" situation on our way back from Table Rock on Sunday. We debated over and over about when to leave, trying to account for the kid's best hours to be on the road...but no amount of planning could have prepared us for what happened on our trip home! Yes, it could have been worse, and yes, we made it home safely, so we have much to be thankful for...but it went a little like this:
We left Table Rock at 9:30 in the morning, with the best intentions of driving a few hours, stopping for lunch, hoping Sawyer would nap most of the afternoon after eating, and hoping to be home around 4:30 or so. It's about a 7 hour drive. The kids did awesome on the way down, so we were just ready to put it in cruise and press repeat...
An hour into the drive, Cullen started complaining that he thought he was going to get sick. He has terrible car-sickness, but it's normally fine as long as he does the driving. Right before we hit Nixa, he pulls the car over to the side of the road quickly and gets sick on the road. A few minutes later he decides he can keep driving and feels better. My mind starts going crazy at this point...I have a phobia of the stomach flu, I'm not kidding. I avoid throwing up at all costs. So I start thinking...is he just car sick? Is this because he and Kaleb smacked heads hard the day before on the tube and he has a concussion? Or is it the dreaded stomach flu hitting us at one of the worst possible times, one hour into a seven hour car trip.
He drove through Springfield, claiming to be feeling better and then pulls the car over before we make it into Bolivar, Mo. Round two. Side of the road again. I convince him to let me take over the driving at this point and decide to push onward, pulling over whenever he needed to. My stomach-flu phobia was in full force at this point as I wiped the steering wheel (just because he had touched it after getting sick) with wet-wipes hoping somehow that would sanitize it since no anti-bacterial wipes of any kind or even a drop of hand-sanitizer could be found in my car...what was I thinking?
Cullen tried to close his eyes and rest, but the kids kept needing things so he'd have to turn around every few minutes to hand them things, which made him feel worse. We stopped in Osceola (ever been to the cheese place?) for a bathroom break and to collect ourselves, and then decided we would make it to Clinton for lunch for the rest of us. The boys wanted Happy Meals really badly and it was the one thing we could try and bribe them with to get them to behave.
We pull into a McDonald's in Clinton, and without the slightest bit of warning, Hayden starts throwing up all over himself and the back of our car. AAAAHHHH...what now?? We evacuate the car, (Cullen and I and Hayden)...Poor Sawyer just gets to sit in his car seat desperately wanting a Happy Meal since he can now see the arches...and watch the madness unfold). People everywhere were watching us, and thinking we were most definitely insane as we tried wipe after wipe to clean up the mess, all the while Cullen feeling sicker and sicker...and me telling myself...yes, the stomach flu has hit and you and Sawyer are just ticking time bombs. The worst part about kids and throwing up, is the fact they give you NO warning. As we were cleaning him up we kept asking him, did you feel sick? Did your tummy hurt? WHY didn't you tell us? To top it all off, he now wanted his Happy Meal. The place was packed with people, but I cut to the front of the line anyway and (knowingly with throw up on my hands) asked for plastic sacks and explained the situation. The workers definitely looked like they felt sorry for me and were thoroughly grossed out for sure.
Cullen takes Hayden into the bathroom to wash up, and he has Round 3 himself. Poor guy. We didn't know what to do, should we find a hotel...but who wants to be stuck in a hotel room just to get sick? And we wouldn't even be able to check in yet. Cullen really wanted to see if we could make it home, but we had more than 4 hours to go, and I was just sure that at any moment Hayden or Cullen or even Sawyer would be getting sick, so I was very hesitant. It was right about here that we had to try and explain to Sawyer (and Hayden) why we were not getting lunch, which didn't go over very well. To top it all off, we had tried to keep Sawyer awake before the McDonald's incident and now he seemed like a nap was not in the cards. He finally did fall asleep for about an hour, and Hayden seemed to be fine and happy with watching a movie, but Cullen felt horrible. Round 4 for him occurred somewhere before we hit Kansas City, can't remember exactly where.
That was one of the most tense situations I've ever been in. Number one, I don't like driving long distances and I drove 6 hours of the trip. Not only was I driving, but I didn't have any one to talk to, couldn't listen to music because it made Cullen feel more nauseous, I didn't eat or drink anything because I was sure that I'd be dropping next, and I was on the edge of my seat at every weird noise made by anybody in the car thinking that they were about to...you know.
The last 2 hours of this trip literally felt like FOREVER. We stopped several times, and didn't think we would ever make it home. At one rest stop right before we hit Iowa, a lady in the bathroom said to me (as I was changing Sawyer's diaper and because no doubt I looked like I had been run over by a truck), "You're doing a good job Mama." I responded with a thank you and a quick summary of what we were going through at the moment and she smiled and said, "This too shall pass." She must have been my angel sent from Heaven! She truly did raise my spirits. How true...this little event is NOTHING. As long as we can get home safely, we will be fine.
I was getting really tired and so ready to be home, so Cullen offered to take over the driving, but I told him I could make it. That was right when we saw the sign for Des Moines: 100 miles, and right when Sawyer decided he'd had enough. I can't remember what he kept saying, but I know that nothing we did made him happy. He didn't have anyone trying to entertain him and he hadn't eaten much (other than a few snacks that we thought would be okay if they came back up). I do remember him wanting his "di-di" (binky) and "danket" (blanket), Cullen giving them to him, and him throwing them both on the ground immediately after. Salt in the wound.
Cullen started chilling and couldn't get comfortable. He tried to prop his head up with his wallet against the window...didn't work. Then he tried his shoe, at which point he mumbles to me, "I'm pretty sure this shoe has throw up on it." He slept against it anyway.
We counted down the miles to Des Moines, and I tried to exit twice at the wrong places thinking surely it HAD to be the Highway 5 Bypass, cuing Cullen to lift his head to yell at me, "Not yet!" Once we made it to Pleasant Hill, we decided that we'd have to go to McDonald's before going home because Poor Sawyer had been promised a Happy Meal, and Hayden was positive he could eat, and I had only had a granola bar all day. I told Cullen I would take him home first, but he decided that wouldn't make any sense.
As soon as we pulled into our driveway (Happy Meals in tow), Cullen went to bed and didn't move until the next morning, and I became obsessed with cleaning out my car. I was absolutely beat, but managed to feed the kids, wash out the inside of my car, unload all of our bags, bathe the kids, and get them to bed before crashing onto the couch. Long day.
Cullen's fever hit 101.9 and he thought he was dying (his words) but you wouldn't have believed me if I told you that Hayden had gotten sick. He must have a souped-up immune system because, thankfully, he hardly ever gets sick and when he does it seems to be really short-lived. So far (and I'm majorly crossing my fingers right now and hoping not to jinx anything) Sawyer and I have dodged the bullet. Although, I will say I've had moments of feeling really icky and sick to my stomach the last few days, so we will hope that's all I get. My grandma, Dad, Mom and Matt all ended up with some of the symptoms of the bug, so we definitely got it from each other.
Even said, it was a great trip. One for the books.
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